You care about your home. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® cares about
homeownership. To help you become the best, most responsible homeowner you aspire to be, we
want to provide you with free information and tools you can use to make smart and timely
decisions about your home.

From time to time, we may reach out to you to help us support legislation and/or policies
that may have an impact on you, the homeowner. You can choose to join our cause. Or you can
choose not to. Regardless, your privacy is safe with us.

We'll never share or sell your email address or other personal information
you may provide us in the course of using the site with anyone without your explicit
consent.

A handful of states let you skip the sales tax when you buy energy-efficient appliances or hurricane-preparation supplies during tax holiday periods.

Time your home energy-efficiency improvements or hurricane preparation purchases right and you can avoid paying state sales tax. At least a half-dozen states offer tax breaks to homeowners who purchase energy-efficient appliances, water-efficient products, or hurricane preparation supplies.

What: Exempts hurricane preparedness products from sales tax. You can spend up to $1,000 on a single purchase of generators and power cords and buy an unlimited number of supplies costing up to $60 each, such as batteries, tarps, cell phone chargers, flashlights, weather radios, plywood to cover windows, or smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.

When: Late May to early June for hurricane and September for Energy Star and WaterSense

What: Exempts hurricane preparedness products from sales tax. You can spend up to $750 on a portable generator and up to $50 for weather-band radios, or $30 on batteries. You can spend up to $500 on up to three Energy Star- or WaterSense-qualified products and not owe sales tax.

What: In 2015, energy- and water-efficient products that cost $1,500 or less are exempted from its 7% sales tax. That includes a dishwasher, clothes washer, air conditioner, ceiling fan, CFL bulb, dehumidifier, programmable thermostat, refrigerator, door, or window that meets Energy Star or WaterSense standards.

When: Last Saturday and Sunday of each May and first consecutive Friday and Saturday each August

What: The May holiday lets you skip the state’s sales tax on the first $1,500 in purchases on hurricane preparation items like portable generators, storm shutters, batteries, weather-band radios, and tie-down kits. The August tax holiday lets you skip the state’s 4% sales tax on the first $2,500 in purchases on individual items of “tangible personal property not for business use.” A TPP is literally something you can touch and take. And it’s not just energy-efficient appliances and hurricane prep, but almost anything you’d buy for your home.

What: Exempts state sales tax (4.225%) on Energy Star appliances costing up to $1,500 each. To qualify, appliances, which can include clothes washers, water heaters, dishwashers, air conditioners, furnaces, refrigerators, freezers, heat pumps, and conventional ovens and stoves, must have an Energy Star rating.

What: A break from state and local sales taxes and use taxes (which range from 6.25% to 8.25%) on energy-efficient products, including air conditioners, refrigerators, ceiling fans, incandescent and CFL bulbs, clothes washers, dehumidifiers, and programmable thermostats.

What: Exempts hurricane preparedness products. You can spend up to $1,000 for generators and power cables and buy an unlimited number of supplies costing up to $60 each like batteries, tarps, cell phone chargers, flashlights, weather radios, storm shutters, or smoke or carbon monoxide detectors.

has been writing about real estate for more than two decades. She lives in a suburban Baltimore Midcentury modest home on a 3-acre lot shared with possums, raccoons, foxes, a herd of deer, and her blue-tick hound. Follow Dona on Google+.

Track Your Progress

Added to Binder

If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam: